THE photographs in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane look at Goodall’s Garage that operated in Queen Anne Street in Dunfermline.

The first photograph is a view along the street with the Post Office just visible in the distance on the corner of Pilmuir Street and Douglas Street. Most of Queen Anne Street was later demolished and is part of the Kingsgate Centre today.

Local historian George Beattie researched the history of Goodall’s and describes their development over the years. In 1868, at the age of 17, John White Goodall set up his horse and cab business in a single-stall stable in what is now known as Commercial School Lane, off East Port.

In 1921, the partners parted with all their horses and converted the hiring part of the business over completely to motor cars. Later, Mr Goodall took advantage of an opportunity to become owner of the Queen Anne Street property which he converted subsequently into one of the largest, and best-appointed, stabling yards in Scotland

In tandem with the hiring department, the motor car sales and engineering side of the business continued to grow between the wars and Goodall was selling agents for a number of vehicle manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Swift, Dodge, Bean, Arrol Johnston, Ford, Angus Sanderson, Belsize, Ruston Hornsby, Argyll, Wolseley, Galloway, Rover, Citroen, Vulcan, Durant, Studebaker, Renault and Hillman. Many of these manufacturers went out of business in the twenties and thirties with only a few of the above companies such as Roll-Royce, Ford, Wolseley, Rover, Citroen, Renault and Hillman surviving beyond the Second World War.

Our next photograph from around 1940 shows two of their limousines with chauffeurs Willie Leslie and Jimmy McPherson alongside them.

In 1933, Goodall installed their first electrically-operated pumps and, in front of the pumps, they also installed their famous electric-powered car turntable.

Our next photograph shows the interior of Goodall’s. Lack of space inside the garage forced this innovation upon them. An undercover filling station with an electric turntable proved to be a sales gimmick of the first order. It was the only one of its kind in Fife, perhaps in Scotland, and sales boomed.

The introduction of new regulations in 1960 meant it was no longer permissible to have a filling station within a garage and this resulted in Goodall's acquiring derelict properties adjacent to their Inglis Street entrance and locating a purpose-built filling station there.

Goodall’s continued to play a prominent role in Dunfermline business life and remained independent until 1975.

Our next photograph, provided by Kate Goodall, shows Tom Saunders on the left and Cameron Goodall on the right in their office. When the company was acquired by Taggart, Goodall’s remained in Queen Anne Street until October 1976 when the premises closed and the staff transferred to the Halbeath Road premises of the former Fife Motor Company.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries as well as at Facebook.com/olddunfermline.

With thanks to Frank Connelly.